Any camcorder reccomendations? Full needs in post

[r2builder]

Hi guys, I'm a motion graphics artist in Scotland looking for a new camera.
I'm needing a camcorder to record some live clips for use within my animation. Since I'm a student, I need to keep the costs at the absolute minimum without compromising the quality of my work.
I'm by no means a newbie to video, I've studied traditional photography, digital (stills) photography and have been working with animation for the past few years.

Here's what I need:
I'll be in 16:9 ALL of the time - I've heard that some camcorders have a lower quality when in 16:9?
Sound quality doesn't matter - I won't be using the on-board microphone
I might be chroma-keying - bluescreen/greenscreen so colour quality needs to be of a high standard.
I'll want to play with the settings - as I mentioned, I'm a photographer at heart - so I'll want to play with the exposure etc. A point & shoot won't do.
Because of my quality concerns, a DVD camcorder wouldn't work, as the results would be too compressed.
I have a firewire 800 port already on my MacBook Pro - so I think this would give a better quality transfer than a firewire 400?

So, here's where it gets tricky... the price limit is £300. That's around $550 US I think.

Anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks all!
_James

[redwudz]

Your price point may a little hard to hit, but DV camcorders have come a long ways in the last few years. If I remember correctly, some camcorders use a regular 4:3 screen for 16:9 and some have a true 16:9 screen or use some 'tricks' to achieve 16:9. But I'm no camcorder expert, though we have a few around here that should be able to give some good suggestions.

Your camera will likely output as 400 FireWire speed, so having a faster FireWire port won't make any difference in quality or speed.

And welcome to our forums.

[daamon]

Hi r2builder,

Welcome to the forums.

I might be chroma-keying - bluescreen/greenscreen so colour quality needs to be of a high standard.

If you're going for DV (as opposed to High Definition DV - considering the price), then make sure you get a 3-CCD cam. Basically, there's 3 chips - one to capture each primary colour. This will give you a better capture of your blue / green screen and so easier to work with in this respect.

Here's a thought - how about trying to get a hold of a semi-pro Super VHS (S-VHS) cam? I've no idea on prices, but I did a "Intro to Video Production" course a couple of years ago and we used S-VHS cameras. They had all the manual control you want: exposure, zoom etc.

And, let's face it, that's the kind of thing I guess George Lucas used when making the (true) first Star Wars...

A good site to check out cams: www.camcorderinfo.com - they've also got great forums with very knowledgeable people.

Good luck!